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Archive for June, 2007

I want to express my ‘THANKS’ to all you Readers that have made this little corner of ‘My World’ a spot that has surpassed 1,000 HITS since its inception. Oh, I KNOW a 1,000 HITS is minuscule compared to other sites ~ but keep in mind that I don’t ‘push’ “Scorpio’s World” on Announce it anywhere; but through simple ‘word of mouth’ you’ve made this site something worth YOUR TIME and of Value.

Whenever Events in the World become too overpowering for my fragile Mind to cope <g>, I shelter back into the “World of Fantasy” literature. This course is one I took during the period right after‘911’, and then right after the tragic Decision by YOUR PRESIDENT <g> to preemptively INVADE poor little Iraq.

Periods in TIME, I might add, that TODAY seem like a picnic compared to what is going on in the Mideast (what with the carnage in Iraq; the conflict in the Palestinian Regions; Lebanon Conflict; Turkey poised to invade the Kurds etc.)

I’ve just completed my reading of the massive Fantasy trilogy by Phil Pullman entitled “His Dark Materials“. And just as Tolkien’s “TheLord of the Rings” settled my Mind during the Periods previously mentioned … so, too, has Pullman’s powerful Fantasy Tale served as a balm to sooth my restless Soul.

But that’s what Great Fantasy does, yes?

Great Fantasy helps explain Human Nature and Motivation far greater thanany Media can ever attempt to accomplish. For within Fantasy, one can look beyond (and deeper) into the great Issues facing all of Mankind sans hidden Agendas, Political Ideologies, and the almighty Dollar that basically is the straw that stirs the Drink of Twenty-first Century Civilization and Culture.

During the past month, I’ve been focused not on Bush … but instead on a brave little girl named Lyra. I’ve been concerned and consumed about Witches, armored bears, daemons, alethiometers, Oblation Boards, Gobblers, subtle knives, Intention Crafts, Angels, a Regent of God, and God himself. And WORLDS only a very Gifted Writer could conceive.

These things made more sense to me …. than ANYTHING I’ve read in the Media! And not only that: Fantasy can be more TRUSTWORTHY as well.

As long as Mankind continues to entertain his ‘Lower Self’ desires for Greed, Power, Hubris, War, Racism, and Envy ~ there will ALWAYS be a need for Fantasy Tales. For within this genre lies the TRUE nature of our very Being and Existence.

ARCADIA, Fla. — Kenny Jesus Zavala heard too many horror stories to enter the U.S. illegally. But when a recruiter came to his central Mexico hometown and offered him a legal path as a temporary worker, it sounded too good to pass up.

The recruiter promised that with an H–2A agriculture work visa, Zavala would earn $8.56 an hour picking oranges with no fear of sudden deportation. Zavala, 21, earned that much, but as soon as he cashed his check, the contractor would steal a third of the pay.

“The contractor told us that if we spoke up, no one would want to hire us again,” said Zavala of Moroleon, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. “It’s worse than for the illegals because you’re not free to go. You have to stay with the contractor that brought you.”

The agriculture guest worker program was designed to provide a stable, legal work force for agriculture with safe working conditions for the immigrants, without adversely affecting local wages. More than 37,000 such visas were issued nationwide last year, primarily to Mexicans.

But farm worker advocates say the act has not met its goals — workers are still abused and often left dependent on middlemen who steal their money. And they say it shields corporate growers from lawsuits and sanctions over lost wages, leaving the workers with nowhere to turn. An Associated Press review of temporary farmworker requests in Florida found nearly two-thirds were filed by contractors.

Advocates want Congress to address those problems as it contemplates reauthorizing thousands more temporary farm workers under the proposed immigration bill.

Zavala was one of nearly a dozen migrant workers in central Florida who told The AP about being forced to pay contractors kickbacks. Most declined to give their names for fear of retribution. Many are afraid to file complaints because the contractors decide who gets to come back the following year. The contractors also provide worker housing, serve as translators and often offer the only ride to the grocery store or to the doctor.

Unscrupulous contractors once doctored the hours of the employees to steal from them. But as more large growers switch to electronic timekeeping, they are finding new means to squeeze money from the workers, said Mary Bauer, who recently co-wrote a study on the U.S. guest worker program for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“This seems like a new variation on an old theme,” Bauer said. “Growers create this system where they claim the workers are not their employees to get cover. They benefit from it, and the contractors benefit, but the workers don’t.”

Her group wants the U.S. to require growers — not the contractors — to file guest worker requests with the federal Labor Department and step up enforcement of existing guest worker protection laws.

Walter Kates, who heads labor relations for the growers’ Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, said growers rely on the contractors because the current visa system is so convoluted — employers must get approval from four different federal and state agencies. That makes it impossible to guarantee they will get their workers on time without contractors.

“If there are problems out there, the majority of the industry condemns them as much as anyone else does. We don’t condone cheating workers, and we don’t want to be labeled with that black brush,” Kates said.

Because the workers are loath to complain and lose their jobs, most keep quiet or return to their native country. A growing number are also opting to go the illegal route where they are not dependent on one contractor.

Mexico City native Genaro Flores, 26, decided to go home in March after two weeks of losing money to the man who hired him. He has since returned to the U.S. illegally, working in Atlanta as a day laborer.

“It’s a lot better here,” he said. “I’m making money and I don’t have to give it to the contractor.”

The contractor system, in which independent harvest companies supply workers to large corporate growers, has exploded in the last 20 years. Many of these operations can fold up quickly if sued and lack the deep pockets of larger agriculture conglomerates.

A review of petitions requesting 4,700 guest worker permits in Florida since last September, showed about 75 percent were filed by contractors rather than growers, especially in the citrus industry. Tomato growers, who need more help year-round, are far less likely to rely on a middleman.

Part of the problem is that the contractor is caught between the grower and the worker.

The current H–2A agriculture visa allows workers to come to the U.S. for three- to six-month periods if local help cannot be found. The temporary workers must receive above average pay — $8.56 an hour in Florida.

Yet citrus pickers, the largest percentage of Florida’s guest workers, are usually paid by the number of oranges they pick and not by the hour. They have to pick about one orange every two seconds to reach $8.56 an hour.

Many do not, especially those attracted by the promise of a legal job who may not have a background in farm work. And growers don’t necessarily subsidize the makeup pay the contractors must shell out, said Greg Schell, an attorney for Florida Rural Legal Services.

Complaints can backfire. Consolidated Citrus LP, which employs Zavala‘s boss, Benjamin Ramirez Harvesting, threatened to fire at least one contractor in the wake of worker complaints about pay. That would have left all the workers out of a job.

In response to the workers’ concerns, Consolidated handed out written messages to workers with their checks reminding them they “were under no obligation” to give money to Ramirez. He did not return repeated calls from the AP.

Mike Bartos, Consolidated human resources head, said he could not discuss ongoing cases but said the company had received complaints from Rural Legal Services, which prompted the messages. He said the company offers training for contractors and brings in federal and state agencies to talk with them about labor issues.

“If something like this is going on, (Consolidated) would not tolerate it,” he said.

Earlier this year, Schell signed roughly 20 people to a claim against the kickbacks. By May, all but four had returned early to Mexico, including Zavala, or no longer wanted to press their case fearing retaliation.

Zavala said Ramirez kept the temporary Social Security cards of those who left, meaning they could be used again for other workers.

For now, Zavala is biding his time, hoping his early return won’t affect his ability to get a visa next year. He wants to return to the U.S. legally to work for a friend gardening in Chicago.

If that doesn’t work out, he might come back illegally across the desert.

___________

The above Story is just Evidence #101 as towhy all this ‘broo-ha’ over poor Mexicans ‘sneaking’ into the United States is flawed and misplaced; because apparently MOST Americans fail to understand that the existing ‘System’ is flawed to begin with! In other words:

better to blame the Victim (in this case the Mexican Immigrant) of a terribly flawed and ‘FIXED’ Syatem …. than bitch about the flaws within the System itself!

See. These crocodile tears I hear so much from Right wingers and out right Racists about how “We need to protect our Borders!” or “These People (Mexicans: the New Niggas) are getting a Free Pass by jumping to the head of the Line!” crap is simply that:

Crap!

How can one expect Mexican Immigrants to so-call ‘Follow The Rules’ when: 1) those Rules are NOT enforced or said Laws & Regulations take undue Advantage of the Mexicans; 2) because of these Unenforced Rules, it’s easier for Mexicans to bypass this governmental ‘red tape’ and faux pax and come here illegally; and 3) Mexicans KNOW that ‘White Immigrants’ have skirted the Laws for decades …. and gotten away with it!

Yet here we have so-called ‘Good Americans’ bemoaning the fact that because Mexican Children dare seek an Education; or have the audacity to sit LONG HOURS in an Emergency Room at a local hospital to seek medical care; or (Heaven Forbid) seek employment harvesting grapes or working under the HOT sun doing rigorous Road Work …. that I’m supposed to feel sympathy for the Right wing Point of View:

which is nothing but raw Racism!!

I don’t give a damn that an Immigrant (Legal or otherwise) wants to bust their ass here to put food on their Family’s Table!

I could give a fat rat’s ass whether they speak Spanish, English, or Zulu!

Hell! I don’t even mind paying for it either. After all, how much of my money has been poured down that ‘Black Hole’ called Iraq, hum!

I swear. If Right wingers and Racists didn’t have something to piss them off:

“You speak ofdestiny,” he said, “as if it was fixed.And I ain’t sure Ilike that any more than a war I’m enlisted in without knowing about it. Where’s my free will, if you please? And this child seems to me to have more free will than anyone I ever met. Are you telling methat she’s just some kind of clockwork toy wound up and set going on a course she can’t change?”

“We are allsubject to the fates. Butwe must all act as ifwe are not,” said the witch, “or die of despair. There is a curious prophesy about this child: she is destined to bring about the end of destiny. But she must do so without knowing what she is doing, as if it were her nature and not her destiny to do it. If she’s told what she must do, it will be the triumph of despair, forever. The universes will all become nothing more than interlocking machines,blind and empty of thought, feeling, life …”

~ excerpt from Book One entitled “The Golden Compass“, part of the trilogy of Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials”

*************

I rarely Recommend Works of Fantasy. After all, this genre is unique in that eachTale holds meaning and importance to a select few Individuals. Forinstance, some People enjoy Tales of Wizards while others can’t relate in the least. Some people enjoy Tales of dragons …. while others find such to be most boring. I understand.

Personally, I’m a very picky READER of Fantasy. A tale must reach me tothe Soul; make me feel CONNECTED to its geography, character(s), and plot. I’m embarrassed to admit that mylibrary holds more books of Fantasy that I’ve Started & Stopped dead in its tracks because many books in this genre failed to CONNECT with me; thus I hesitate to Recommend books because my own tastes are quite weird at times.

: )

Having said that <g>, I want to Highly Recommend a book I’m currently enjoying. It’s a trilogy entitled “His Dark Materials” by Philip Pullman. Oh, you have witch clans and armored ‘talking‘ bears, angels and magical devices ~ but at its HEART (at least in the first Bookentitled “The Golden Compass”) beats a very compelling Tale involving a wonderful, charming, and highly courageous little girl named Lyra.

Read this first book and see if you don’t fall ‘head over heels’ in LOVE with her!

Apparently this holiday season a MOVIE will be releasedof the first book. So you might want to get a head start on the upcoming movie and begin reading it, huh!

AsMargo Jefferson writes in The New York Times Book Review ~

“War, politics, magic, science, individual lives and cosmic destinies are all here … shaped and assembled into a narative of tremendous pace by a man with a generous, precise intelligence. Pullman gives us so much …. I am completely enchanted.”